NEW YORK TIMES
Elli Hakami on ‘The Week the Women Went,’ on Lifetime
Karolina Wojtasik/A&E Television Networks
Women of Yemassee, S.C., walk to the train in the Lifetime series “The Week the Women Went.”
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK
Rare is the overworked mother or exasperated wife who hasn’t wished to turn on her heel and close the door behind her. Perhaps even more unusual is the woman who has left, even for a few days, without reeling from guilt. But for one week last summer, more than 100 women 18 to 82 from Yemassee, S.C. (population 1,000, give or take), were granted a hall pass from their everyday routines and hustled out of town while the men stayed behind.
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Anais Wade for The New York Times
Elli Hakami, one of the executive producers for BBC Worldwide Productions who brought the project to Lifetime.
The result was “The Week the Women Went,” a reality series starting on Tuesday on Lifetime. Based on a formula originated by the BBC, the show has appeared in different versions in 13 countries — from Britain, Norway and Germany to Morocco and Ukraine.
In a recent telephone interview Elli Hakami, one of the executive producers for BBC Worldwide Productions who brought the project to Lifetime, spoke about life without the opposite sex. Following are excerpts from the conversation.
Q. This show has been applied to communities across Europe and even in Asia and North Africa. What’s the appeal?
A. I think every woman, regardless of culture, probably wonders what would happen if she just walked away. And I think the one thing that’s been evident about this format is its versatility. The way it was interpreted in France was as a one-off special. [That show, broadcast on International Women’s Day, sent the women from a village on holiday to Marrakesh.] In India it became a competition, and over 16 episodes, men were basically eliminated if they weren’t able to step up and do the tasks.
Q. What were the criteria for choosing an American community?
A. We visited towns around the country for three or four months. We wanted to get close to pulling all of the women out of the community. And we were more likely to achieve that based on the population — for instance, a few thousand. Then we started looking at the individual stories. What was really important is that we found women in roles that were not just being at home with the kids. We wanted to find working women. We wanted to find women who were community leaders and, of course, mothers and sisters and wives. It was important that we found a 360-degree view of the roles that women could play.
Q. In the first episode we see women boarding the train while screaming children and worried husbands are left behind. What story lines can we expect?
A. We have a couple who had only been away from each other twice throughout their marriage. What happens when they had to spend a week apart was both traumatic and surprising. The men partaking in a beauty pageant was probably one of the most heartwarming, comical events you can imagine. One of the husbands, who’d never even combed his daughter’s hair, had to create this dress, and that resulted in a spray-painted dress with cutout barbed wire. Watching this happen, you realized it was all from the heart.
Q. Were any events planned?
A. A lot of the women had events on their calendars that they made sure would happen when they went away to make life more challenging for the men. The women in Yemassee were interviewed several months in advance, but when we announced the winning town, we filmed the experiment three or four weeks later. We wanted it to be raw for them and to make sure we were there during the summer so that parenting was a full-time job for the men.
Q. A narration by the comedian Jeff Foxworthy was eventually added to the series. Why?
A. In his humor Jeff makes observations about family and relationships between husbands and wives and children. He also comes from a smaller town in the South. He more or less became another character in this town. But it’s not comedic narration, necessarily. It’s peppered in very lightly.
Q. Did you follow up with the women?
A. We’re definitely in touch with the women. Yemassee is a pageant community; it’s very much what they do. And a lot of these women for the first time didn’t take their daughters to the pageant, so they didn’t know the outcome. I was at the women’s camp when we were shooting, and they felt really lucky that their town was chosen.
But it was hard. One woman said: “I’ve been looking so forward to this week just so I could have adult conversation. But I have to say that I don’t feel complete not having them around.”
Q. So, did anyone end up leaving for good after the week was up?
A. Oh, I don’t want to ruin it. Yes, we had women who couldn’t stay the whole week.
Q. I meant did any decide to leave their husbands?
A. Oh, left forever? No! Maybe next season.
